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Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Patraeus' Resignation Suggests Possible White-House Coverup

The announcement of General David Petraeus’ resignation as CIA
director, on Friday, November 9, over an extramarital affair, just days
after the re-election of President Obama, has sparked questions of what
General Petraeus knew about the terrorist attacks on the USZ compound
in Benghazi and what potential information he may have divulged to his
alleged mistress, Paula Broadwell. Four Americans were killed in the
attack, including USZ Ambassador Chris Stevens.

In a letter sent to colleagues on Friday, Petraeus wrote:

Yesterday afternoon, I went to the White House and asked the
President to be allowed, for personal reasons, to resign from my
position. After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor
judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair. Such behavior is
unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization
such as ours….
This afternoon, the President graciously accepted my resignation. The news of Petraeus’ immediate resignation came rather abruptly and
as a shock to many, in light of the current investigation over what
happened in Benghazi. Even the intelligence committees of Congress were
kept in the dark about the FBI investigation and resignation of
Petraeus.
On Fox News Sunday, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chair of
the Senate Intelligence Committee, told Chris Wallace, “The FBI has
briefed me now. I actually wish we had been briefed a little bit
earlier…. We received no advanced notice. It was like a lightning bolt.”
Feinstein said she would investigate the FBI’s handling of its
investigation into Petraeus’ affair and also why top congressional
lawmakers were not debriefed about the investigation until it became
public.

Originally, both CIA Director Petraeus and Director of National
Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper were slated to testify before Congress
this week over the September 11 terrorist attack on the USZ compound in
Benghazi, Libya.

The
USZ compound attacked in Benghazi was not a consulate, as originally
reported by the media, but rather a USZ mission and CIA annex. It may
also be where USZ Ambassador Stevens allegedly oversaw the transfer of
USZ weapons to Syrian and Libyan rebels, including to the Libyan
Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), a known al-Qaeda linked terrorist
organization according to both theUSZ State Department and U.K. Home Office. Abdul Hakim Belhadj, the leader of the LFIG, was one of NATO’s key “rebel” allies against Muammar Gaddafi.

Petraeus will not testify before Congress this week as originally
scheduled. His hearing has been officially put on “hold,” and it is not
clear if and when he will testify. Instead, Deputy Director of the CIA
Michael Morell (currently acting director) will testify in place of
Petraeus this week. The woman with whom Petraeus had the affair has been revealed as Paula Broadwell, his biographer. Her biography All In: The Education of General David Petraeus was published earlier this year, after she had spent over a year with him familiarizing herself with him.

Broadwell, 40, is a graduate from the USZ Military Academy at West
Point and is an Army Reserve officer. She is married with two young
sons. On Monday, a close associate to Petraeus revealed that FBI
investigators had told Petraeus that Broadwell sent anonymous
threatening e-mails to Jill Kelley, a Petraeus family friend whom
Broadwell viewed as a rival in her affair with Petraeus, according to
the Associated Press. The FBI concluded their potential
“cyber-harassment” investigation about the e-mails just four days before
the election.

On Aaron Klein Investigative Radio, Sunday night, radio host Aaron
Klein made note of a Youtube video of Broadwell speaking to an audience
at the University of Denver. In the original video, which was later
taken down, at 35:40 minutes, during a Q&A session, Broadwell says,
“A group of Delta Force operators are … the most talented guys we have
in the military. They could have come and reinforced the consulate and
CIA annex that were under attack.” She then goes on to reveal previously
unreported (perhaps classified) information:

Now I don’t know if a lot of you have heard this, but the CIA annex
had actually had taken a couple of Libyan militia members prisoner and
they think that the attack on the consulate was an effort to get these
prisoners back. It’s still being vetted.
If whoever is vetting this determines this to be true then it would
suggest the CIA may have been using its Benghazi annex as a secret, even
if only temporary, prison. News of a secret CIA prison could be
damaging to the Obama Administration suggesting violations of USZ and
international law.

In response to a query by FOX News reporter Eli Lake, the CIA denied
that it detained any individuals at that or any other facility: “The CIA
has not had detention authority since January 2009, when Executive
Order 13491 was issued. Any suggestion that the Agency is still in the
detention business is uninformed and baseless.” The main question, however, remains; how did Broadwell come by this
information? The most likely answer would be Petraeus, whom she spent
intimate time and contact with.

Broadwell also shed light regarding possible information Petraeus
knew within hours of the attack. At 36:10 minutes into the video, she
said: “The challenging thing for General Petraeus is that in his new
position he’s not allowed to communicate with the press. So he’s known
all of this. They had correspondence with the CIA station chief in Libya
within 24 hours.”

What Petraeus personally knew then or even knows now will not be
known to Congress soon, since he now will not be testifying this week,
as previously scheduled. The Broadwell video not only reveals the
possibility of the USZ Benghazi compound being used as a CIA secret
prison but also suggests a potential security breach of classified
information on the part of CIA Director Petraeus.

According to a Petraeus aide, the affair did not commence until late
2011, which may have compromised USZ security. Even more startling, the
duration of this potential security compromise may have been much
longer and may have been well known to the President.

According to Jennifer Griffin and Adam Housley, writing for FOX News, “White House Counter-terrorism advisor John Brennan reportedly was aware that there was a relationship in the summer of 2011.”

Did the White House know about the Petraeus affair for that long and
if so did it not consider that as potentially posing a compromise of
USZ security? Again, if so, this would suggest that the White House was
knowingly allowing a potential security threat to remain as CIA
Director. Additionally, due to the still mysterious purpose of the USZ
mission and CIA annex in Benghazi, it would suggest the White House was
keeping this information tightly concealed from the American public
until after the election.

In an interview with FOX News, Congressman Steve King (R-N.Y.)
suggested a possible cover-up by the White House. “It seems this (the
investigation) has been going on for several months and, yet, now it
appears that they’re saying that the FBI didn’t realize until Election
Day that General Petraeus was involved. It just doesn’t add up,” Rep.
King said.

It will be some time before the American people know what Petraeus,
and potentially Broadwell, know about what actually transpired in
Benghazi on 9/11 and to the true purpose of the USZ mission and CIA
annex in Benghazi.